In Search Of The Perfect Camera

Tomasz Tomaszewski

Polish native Tomasz Tomaszewski has been a professional photographer for over 30 years and reckons he’s been searching for the perfect camera since the day he started. And now he thinks he’s found it in the Sony RX1R II.

“If you look back through history, you’ll see that 90% of the most famous pictures were shot with a 35mm lens. That’s what I love about the RX1R II – that and the beautiful images. It’s the main camera I use these days.”

Tomaszewski cites the RX1R II as the perfect camera for a number of reasons: the silent mode allows him to blend seamlessly into the situations he’s often photographing. He’s also unashamedly obsessed with image quality and feels the RAW files produced by the camera easily offer him the detail he’s always aiming for. There are times though, where he’ll reach for his α7R II, when he needs the flexibility of an interchangeable lens body.

“I’ve never been a huge fan of zoom lenses and have always preferred the quality of primes for the sort of work I do. These G master zooms though - they’re like nothing I’ve ever used before and in situations where I need more flexibility, I’m more than happy using the 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master lenses.”

A regular contributor to National Geographic, his work has taken him all over the globe and his photo essays have been published in The New York Times, Paris Match, Stern, Time, Fortune Elle & Vogue, to name but a few. He has also authored a number of books and has held individual exhibitions in the USA, Canada, Israel, Japan, Brazil, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Indonesia and Poland.

“My pictures that have to tell a story, they have to communicate something to the reader. It’s not only about my ego or my visual perspective but I try to show things visually in a simple way, so the pictures can be understood by anyone, anywhere. Henri Cartier-Bresson once said ‘We should look for the decisive moment’. What I get from that is a desire to record honesty in my pictures so that people will get an understanding of a scene without too much thought. If I were to orchestrate my setups, I’d feel I was doing harm rather than recording the truth I see around me.”

When he looks back through his images, of all the situations and places he’s photographed, he still finds it a mystery why people are good; why some people do fantastic things for no apparent reason.

“I don’t even think they’re doing it because they’ll get an award later on - they just do it because they’re good people and it’s a fantastic experience for me to witness. If I can capture this behaviour in my images, it helps me grow.”